>> reporter: he briefly considered a run in politics for the massachusetts senate seat should john kerry be confirmed for secretary of state. >> i spoke to a lot of friends of mine. >> what did they say? >> what an interesting idea and some of them said yeah i think you could win it if you wanted it. mostly they said you should think really carefully about whether that's wh to do. ♪ i've seen fire and i've seen rain ♪ >> reporter: for the time being at least, what james taylor is meant to do is make more music. he promises a new album is still to come but for today's inauguration he chose to sing a patriotic anthem. >> it's a nice tune that you're singing. >> it is. "america the beautiful" is a beautiful thing. it's a version of the song that i have been playing for a couple years. and i know the song well. i've got a good shot at it tomorrow. >> yes, you do. i suspect that you will. what could go wrong? >> nothing. nothing could go wrong. >> very interesting. >> i don't think anything is going to go wrong for james taylor today. >> and now we see the president and the first family l